Earth's Last Angel Read Free Page B

is!’ exclaims an excited Bill.
    Sheona gingerly carries the strange, pulsating crystal towards the vessel with Bill by her side. They walk up the access ramp and move through the air-lock. As they clear and seal the airlock door, the entire ship suddenly blacks out. This is a full systems failure!
    Bill hears a sudden explosive air shot as the air cannon activated, shooting the emergency distress beacon into space 2 kilometers above the stricken vessel. The beacon now sends a distress signal out into the darkness of space.
    â€˜What the hell just happened? Bill…’ concern in Sheona’s voice.
    â€˜I don’t know…Sheona, check out the crystal! It’s lighting up the whole dock, I think it’s pulsing more quickly too. I’ll check out the Boddington Reactor and find out what’s going on with the power.’
    Sheona stands in the dock, fully entranced by the crystal while Bill goes to check the reactor. After a short time Bill returns holding the now dead reactor in his hand.
    â€˜The reactor is dead! This has never happened before. Let’s go through to the biosphere and wait for the search and rescue team, maybe they will have a spare reactor on board.’
    â€˜OK I’ll bring this with us,’ replies Sheona, holding out the strange, glowing crystal.
    â€˜Yeah alright, at least it’ll give us some light,’ smiles an unsuspecting Bill.
    They make their way through the rear dock into the biosphere via the bulkhead door that separates the two. Bill closes and seals the door.
    Now in the biosphere, Sheona gently places the crystal on a small table that Bill has moved to the center of the biosphere floor.
    Bill moves over to Sheona.
    â€˜Turn your back to me and I’ll unlock your helmet, then you can unlock mine.’
    Sheona turns, Bill unlocks her helmet and she unlocks Bill’s helmet.
    â€˜Let’s get this gear off and get into something more comfortable,’ comments Bill.
    Bill unseals his helmet, quickly followed by Sheona. As Bill takes off his helmet he is overcome by a sudden giddy feeling, as if he is intensely drunk. His helmet drops to the floor with a thud. He looks at Sheona. Through the growing haze, she seems to look like an angel, beautiful and glowing in a strange, brilliant radiance then everything starts spinning, and suddenly everything goes black.
    Removing her helmet, Sheona too, is overcome by a sudden giddy feeling. Bill looks strange as he lays on the floor unconscious, the smoky mist from the crystal envelops him, embracing him. She finds it hard to focus her vision in the overpowering brightness as she starts to spin out, then everything fades out to black:

Chapter 4
    â€˜Croc…there is a class one emergency in progress. I have just picked up the distress signal from Prospecting Vessel 6098. Their location is asteroid SF 2986-12926-5628-00788.’
    â€˜Thank you. Alert the rescue team and inform them I will be coming along with some luggage of my own,’ instructs The Croc to the super bio-computer called Nolack-2.
    â€˜At last the prophecy may be fulfilled! They may have found …staronium!’ the Croc thinks excitedly.
    He rushes off to prepare for this historic event. As he approaches the vault, he instructs Nolack-2 to open the door. The large thick door slides sideways into the wall, allowing the Croc to enter. He walks down the sweeping stairway to floor level and he selects a small chest approximately 1 m long by 50 cm wide and deep. Its walls and floor are 5 cm thick solid gold, as is its lid. On its lid are two golden Crocs standing up on hind legs. Facing each other, they are each 10 cm tall. A 20 cm tall golden pyramid stands between them. It is the Golden Ark of Promise.
    The Croc attaches a thin anti-gravity belt around its girth. Using a small remote, the Croc activates the antigravity belt lifting the chest to a comfortable height off the floor, now the Croc can gently push it in